Aspects of the present invention relate to machine cryptography. Data exchange between computing devices often takes place over communication channels that are not secure. Furthermore, networked devices are often a (unintended) gateway to the management, control and security of the network and devices attached to a network, wherein the network is often connected or part of a public network such as the Internet and may provide access to a bank account or access to a house, a garage, a car, a refrigerator, a camera, a thermostat, a cell phone, a tv device, a tablet, a PC, an industrial facility, the electricity network or other utility network, radar installation, or any other computing device that is enabled to communicate. It is important to guard against unauthorized access of connected devices and to keep the information that is exchanged as private as possible.
Cryptographic procedures performed by machines of authentication, public and private key generation and distribution, encipherment and decipherment rely on public and standard procedures wherein at least one aspect is user specific, but the steps of a procedure are known, including logic functions and/or logic circuits that are used. Many cryptographic procedures are for instance published as standards by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) of the US Department of Commerce. The advantage is that some of the best procedures are made publicly available. Because such procedures are so widely used they are also widely studied and susceptible to ever improving attacking procedures. Because the published security procedures are recognized as being among the best available, the general user is generally unable to develop a new procedure that is better than the standard ones.
It would increase security if one can modify existing procedures in an unpredictable or hard to predict way that would make attacks on security procedures harder to be successful while maintaining strong aspects of known security and cryptography programs and procedures.
Accordingly, novel and improved methods and devices are required that use difficult to predict parameters in modifying standard cryptographic methods and devices.